George joined Microsoft in 1994 as a tester in the then-newly formed Office unit following 14 years in testing at Tandem Computer.

Sinofsky, who worked with George on both Office and Windows, praised the contributions George made at Microsoft.

“Grant always represented the pinnacle of customer focus,” Sinofsky said. “His contributions to both Windows and Office were without parallel in the engineering discipline of testing, automation and quality.”

A Microsoft representative confirmed George’s departure, which he announced earlier Tuesday in a memo to colleagues, saying, “We thank him for his contributions to the company and wish him all the best.”

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131231/another-longtime-windows-exec-heads-for-the-exit-as-2013-draws-to-a-close/feed/0Veteran Microsoft Engineer Jon DeVaan Leaving After Almost 30 Yearshttp://allthingsd.com/20131230/veteran-microsoft-engineer-jon-devaan-leaving-after-almost-30-years/
http://allthingsd.com/20131230/veteran-microsoft-engineer-jon-devaan-leaving-after-almost-30-years/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 21:32:58 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382128Jon DeVaan, a Microsoft engineer and executive who has spent the better part of three decades at the company, is set to leave the software giant on Tuesday.

DeVaan is one of several longtime technical folks at Microsoft whose future has been unclear since a September reorganization of the Windows unit. That shuffling left DeVaan, testing lead Grant George and services head Antoine Leblond without clear roles at the company.

“Jon DeVaan has chosen to leave Microsoft to spend more time with his family,” Microsoft said in a statement on Monday. “Since he joined Microsoft in 1984, Jon contributed to important products and services across the company. We thank him and wish him and his family all the best.”
Of course, there have been some other big exits this year, including Windows unit head Steven Sinofsky and the impending retirement of CEO Steve Ballmer once his replacement has been hired.

In that note, he reflected on his long tenure and some of the products he worked on including some of Microsoft’s early Mac products and the first Windows version of Excel. DeVaan also worked on the company’s TV efforts before being tapped to overhaul companywide engineering processes before his most recent work on Windows 7 and Windows 8.

We’re checking into whether any other execs from the Windows unit or elsewhere at Microsoft have decided that Jan. 1 would be a good time to start spending more time with their families.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131230/veteran-microsoft-engineer-jon-devaan-leaving-after-almost-30-years/feed/0BlackBerry's John Chen on What He Is Doing to Shake Up the Phone Makerhttp://allthingsd.com/20131230/blackberrys-john-chen-on-what-he-is-doing-to-shake-up-the-phone-maker/
http://allthingsd.com/20131230/blackberrys-john-chen-on-what-he-is-doing-to-shake-up-the-phone-maker/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 18:40:34 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=382112BlackBerry CEO John Chen insists that he has put in place much-needed changes that will help turn around the struggling phone maker.

“It was important to make swift and impactful changes to ensure that our customers’ investments in BlackBerry’s infrastructure and solutions are secure,” Chen wrote in an op-ed for CNBC that posted on Monday.

Chen has made some key changes, most notably outsourcing a chunk of device manufacturing to Foxconn and reorganizing the company around a few key areas, including services for businesses, the BBM messaging product, the handset business and the world of non-phone devices that use the QNX operating system BlackBerry acquired a couple years back.

However, the bigger challenges remain those that BlackBerry has faced for several years now. While some BlackBerry-dependent businesses have remained loyal, many other corporations have opened up to iPhones and Android. Meanwhile, demand for new BlackBerry 10 phones has been anemic, leading BlackBerry to take huge charges reflecting the large volumes of unsold inventory for those products.

In his piece, Chen points out that BlackBerry remains the leader in the business of managing mobile devices, larger than upstarts Mobile Iron, Good and AirWatch combined.

“When it comes to enterprise, we’re still the leader,” Chen said. “Don’t be fooled by the competition’s rhetoric claiming to be more secure or having more experience than BlackBerry.”

Again, that’s true, but much of BlackBerry’s strength is tied to its past, with plenty of stock brokers and government workers carrying around devices running the older BlackBerry operating system (and many of those also carry an iPhone or Android for their personal stuff.)

BlackBerry has made some moves to transition its server software to manage those rival devices, in addition to BlackBerry phones. It has also, for the first time, allowed BBM to run on non-BlackBerry devices.

Chen also promised to continue to use QNX, which BlackBerry bought to form the basis of BB10, for non-phone devices.

“Already the dominant machine-to-machine technology of the automotive industry, new capabilities and cloud services are being unveiled at CES in January, and we’re looking toward adjacent verticals for expansion,” Chen said. There QNX is ahead of rivals, but faces increasing competition as Apple lands automakers for its iOS in the Car initiative and Google is reportedly aiming to do something similar with Android.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131230/blackberrys-john-chen-on-what-he-is-doing-to-shake-up-the-phone-maker/feed/0Bringing Inexpensive Mobile Access to Researchers in Antarcticahttp://allthingsd.com/20131230/bringing-inexpensive-mobile-access-to-researchers-in-antarctica/
http://allthingsd.com/20131230/bringing-inexpensive-mobile-access-to-researchers-in-antarctica/#commentsMon, 30 Dec 2013 13:30:58 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380458While cellphone networks have managed to cover large swaths of the six most-populated continents, making a call from Antarctica isn’t so easy.

Now, though, researchers in parts of Antarctica have a mobile communication option that goes beyond pricey satellite phones. A new system from Range Networks allows researchers to use ordinary cellphones to connect with one another, and even to the rest of the world, thanks to a satellite connection located at the base station.

The system replaces what essentially were walkie-talkies that were used by researchers when away from their desks. And, unlike a satellite-only approach, the Range Networks system keeps the researchers connected to one another, regardless of whether there is a satellite signal.

“If there is any loss of connectivity to the outside world, the group can still talk to one another,” said Jacob Winkler, who heads sales and business development for Range Networks.

The system, which can handle 400 mobile phones (along with 800 desktop-based IP phones), is also designed to handle data traffic from various sensors.

While Antarctica presents some unique challenges, Range Networks is using basically the same approach it has gone with to connect other remote corners of the globe, including Oaxaca, Mexico; Papua, Indonesia; and parts of southern Zambia. Among the hallmarks of the Range Networks approach is its use of off-the-shelf GSM cellphones and the open-source software known as OpenBTS that runs on its base stations.

The Antarctic project began roughly a year ago on Macquarie Island, with plans now in place to expand to the Antarctic mainland as well as to those aboard a steel-hulled research vessel.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131230/bringing-inexpensive-mobile-access-to-researchers-in-antarctica/feed/0Investors Flock to Twitter, Like Facebook, as Year Draws to a Closehttp://allthingsd.com/20131224/investors-flock-to-twitter-like-facebook-as-year-draws-to-a-close/
http://allthingsd.com/20131224/investors-flock-to-twitter-like-facebook-as-year-draws-to-a-close/#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 20:29:22 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380965Sure, Facebook has a huge valuation, and Twitter trades at like a billion times earnings, but that hasn’t stopped shares of both companies from surging.

Part of it is the realization that, to the degree that social media actually is a big thing, it really is all about those two companies. And while Facebook and Twitter are tech names, social media has emerged as a key place for all manner of companies, from automakers and airlines to Coke and Pepsi.

In an interview on CNBC, I likened it to the early days of Google’s stock, as investors realized that search advertising was here to stay:

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131224/investors-flock-to-twitter-like-facebook-as-year-draws-to-a-close/feed/0Verizon's LTE Map Is Nearly Complete, but All Four Major Carriers Are Starting to Fill in the Dotshttp://allthingsd.com/20131224/verizons-lte-map-is-nearly-complete-but-all-four-major-carriers-are-starting-to-fill-in-the-dots/
http://allthingsd.com/20131224/verizons-lte-map-is-nearly-complete-but-all-four-major-carriers-are-starting-to-fill-in-the-dots/#commentsTue, 24 Dec 2013 12:00:02 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380683At the beginning of 2013, Verizon Wireless had the clear lead when it came to LTE coverage, so much so that it launched an ad campaign comparing rivals’ coverage maps to modern art.

But over the course of 2013, the picture has started to change. Verizon still has the most areas covered, with the high-speed service in 500 U.S. markets, covering 303 million people. But the others are catching up.

AT&T is Verizon’s nearest competitor, with LTE service currently in 488 markets, covering more than 250 million people. AT&T expects to end the year with its LTE rollout 90 percent completed, covering 270 million people, with the remaining work to be done by next summer.

Sprint launched LTE service in 70 cities last week, bringing its total to 300 markets, while T-Mobile’s most recent public number was that it has LTE in 254 metro areas, covering 203 million people.

In all, it’s a much different picture than the one painted by Verizon’s ad, which depicts coverage maps as they stood much earlier this year.

On that front, T-Mobile recently launched improved service in North Dallas, where the company is taking advantage of increased spectrum acquired via MetroPCS. Sprint is using its Clearwire spectrum to build out its next-generation service, dubbed Spark, while Verizon Wireless is using its spectrum holdings in the AWS range to boost its coverage in major cities.

Verizon started that effort this quarter, and aims to end the year with 5,000 cell sites using the technology by year’s end, primarily in high-demand areas in cities including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131224/verizons-lte-map-is-nearly-complete-but-all-four-major-carriers-are-starting-to-fill-in-the-dots/feed/0Former Microsoft CFO Peter Klein Takes His Talents to William Morrishttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/former-microsoft-cfo-peter-klein-takes-his-talents-to-william-morris/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/former-microsoft-cfo-peter-klein-takes-his-talents-to-william-morris/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 20:36:21 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380662Talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment said on Monday that it had hired former Microsoft CFO Peter Klein to be its new financial chief. William Morris is in the process of acquiring IMG Worldwide, and Klein will serve as CFO of both entities when the deal closes, reporting to co-CEOs Patrick Whitesell and Ari Emanuel.
]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/former-microsoft-cfo-peter-klein-takes-his-talents-to-william-morris/feed/0Apple Did Indeed Acquire BroadMap and Catch Earlier This Yearhttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/apple-did-indeed-acquire-broadmap-and-catch-earlier-this-year/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/apple-did-indeed-acquire-broadmap-and-catch-earlier-this-year/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 19:36:33 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380634Apple buys a lot of of companies.

The challenge for us reporter types is that they typically aren’t the big-name firms that are required to be disclosed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

So, sometimes it can take a bit to figure out just who and what Apple has bought. On Monday, a report from 9to5Mac added two names — BroadMap and Catch — to Apple’s acquisition list, saying that it believed that both companies had been bought earlier this year.

We’re hearing that both companies have been bought by Apple, though both acquisitions are indeed months old.

Apple essentially confirmed the acquisitions with the statement it gives when it has bought something: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” the company said in a statement.

BroadMap, like a number of other Apple acquisitions this year, is aimed at improving Apple’s mapping capabilities, while Catch offered (until it was shut down) a note-taking application.

Update: Technically speaking, Apple acquired the team and technology behind BroadMap, but not the company or its name.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/apple-did-indeed-acquire-broadmap-and-catch-earlier-this-year/feed/0T-Mobile's GoSmart Hopes to Boost Data Use by Offering Unlimited Free Mobile Access to Facebookhttp://allthingsd.com/20131223/t-mobiles-gosmart-hopes-to-boost-data-use-by-offering-free-facebook/
http://allthingsd.com/20131223/t-mobiles-gosmart-hopes-to-boost-data-use-by-offering-free-facebook/#commentsMon, 23 Dec 2013 14:00:37 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380321Overseas, Facebook has worked with a number of carriers to bring free access to the social network for those who don’t otherwise have data plans for their phones.

Now a T-Mobile subsidiary is trying to see if the same thing works in the U.S. GoSmart, a prepaid brand owned by T-Mobile, will offer unlimited free access to Facebook and Facebook Messenger to its phone customers, whether or not they have a data plan.

“Facebook is the most important online communication tool we’ve seen come around,” said Gavin Dillon, T-Mobile’s VP of partner brands.

The free service, which begins next month, will extend to anything hosted on Facebook itself — such as an embedded video — but if a link takes a user off Facebook’s site, they will need to have a data plan, Dillon said.

It’s similar to a program that Facebook has done overseas to bring its social network to mobile users, but marks the first time that it has been tried in the States.

For GoSmart, it is a chance for T-Mobile to give a unique selling point to the GoSmart brand launched earlier this year. The carrier offers plans starting at $25 a month for unlimited talk. Unlimited texting costs an additional $5 a month, while talk, text and low-speed Web access costs $35 a month, and upgrading to unlimited 3G data will cost an extra $10 on top of that.

So far, Dillon said, GoSmart has signed up “hundreds of thousands” of customers. T-Mobile also sells prepaid service under its own name and through its recently acquired MetroPCS brand, as well as through various partners.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131223/t-mobiles-gosmart-hopes-to-boost-data-use-by-offering-free-facebook/feed/0Apple Strikes Long-Awaited Deal With China Mobile, With iPhone 5s and 5c to Hit Stores on January 17http://allthingsd.com/20131222/apple-strikes-long-awaited-deal-with-china-mobile/
http://allthingsd.com/20131222/apple-strikes-long-awaited-deal-with-china-mobile/#commentsSun, 22 Dec 2013 22:04:57 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380433After years of talks, Apple confirmed on Sunday that it has at long last reached a deal with China Mobile to officially carry the iPhone.

“Apple’s iPhone is very much loved by millions of customers around the world,” China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua said in a statement. “We know there are many China Mobile customers and potential new customers who are anxiously awaiting the incredible combination of iPhone on China Mobile’s leading network. We are delighted that iPhone on China Mobile will support our 4G/TD-LTE and 3G/TD-SCDMA networks, providing customers with high-speed mobile service.”

Apple’s Tim Cook said he is excited to begin working with China Mobile.

“China is an extremely important market for Apple and our partnership with China Mobile presents us the opportunity to bring iPhone to the customers of the world’s largest network,” Cook said. “iPhone customers in China are an enthusiastic and rapidly growing group, and we can’t think of a better way to welcome in the Chinese New Year than getting an iPhone into the hands of every China Mobile customer who wants one.”

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White sees thing somewhere between those estimates, forecasting calendar 2014 iPhone sales of 20 million to 24 million on China Mobile, while Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair sees sales of 18 million to 20 million iPhones, though the number will depend on how aggressively Apple and China Mobile promote the iPhone.

“We expect a strong marketing push to follow the official announcement, and that is what is critical,” Blair told AllThingsD earlier this month. “It’s Apple’s job to turn the Chinese consumer away from entrenched brands like Samsung.”

Even before the China Mobile deal, Apple has been making some inroads in the giant market. According to Counterpoint Research, the iPhone 5s, 5 and 5c were October’s No. 1, 2 and 4 top-selling smartphones, with Apple grabbing 12 percent of that month’s market share.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131222/apple-strikes-long-awaited-deal-with-china-mobile/feed/0T-Mobile Plans to Talk "Un-Carrier" 4.0 at CEShttp://allthingsd.com/20131220/t-mobile-plans-to-talk-un-carrier-4-0-at-ces/
http://allthingsd.com/20131220/t-mobile-plans-to-talk-un-carrier-4-0-at-ces/#commentsFri, 20 Dec 2013 16:56:50 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380301T-Mobile is ready to make another big move, announcing plans for a media event at January’s CES to discuss the next step in its “un-carrier” strategy.

“This one you aren’t going to believe,” T-Mobile says in an invitation to journalists. T-Mobile is planning a media event for Wednesday, Jan. 8, at the Las Vegas event.

The first wave of the strategy was doing away with contracts and device subsidies. Since then, T-Mobile has also announced its Jump early upgrade program, as well as a free data offer for tablets and the ability to cheaply roam globally, albeit at slower data speeds.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131220/t-mobile-plans-to-talk-un-carrier-4-0-at-ces/feed/0Bulk-SMS App Maker Bazuc Responds to Lookout's Claims, Says Consumers Should Pay Attention to Riskshttp://allthingsd.com/20131220/bulk-sms-app-maker-bazuc-responds-to-lookouts-claims-says-consumers-should-pay-attention-to-risks/
http://allthingsd.com/20131220/bulk-sms-app-maker-bazuc-responds-to-lookouts-claims-says-consumers-should-pay-attention-to-risks/#commentsFri, 20 Dec 2013 13:00:06 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380191The maker of an app that Lookout has branded as a security threat contends that it is offering a potentially lucrative, if risky, business opportunity to consumers.

Bazuc distributes an Android app that when installed sends SMS messages through a user’s phone, with Bazuc promising to pay users a tenth of a penny for each message sent.

After spending a month researching Bazuc.net and its apps, Lookout on Thursday warned that the app poses a significant threat to users, including the potential for angry phone calls and seeing their phone service disconnected for violating the terms of their contracts. Lookout said it would warn users of its security software who have the app installed, and also said it was reaching out to carriers and other companies that it believes may have a problem with what Bazuc is doing.

In an email, Bazuc creator Richard Loomis confirmed some things that Lookout said, but took issue with others, and insists that it details many of the potential risks on its website.

“Yes, there are risks involved for the app users, which are very clearly posted in a very large font on both the website and inside the app itself,” Loomis said in an email to AllThingsD. “One thing I’ve learned from many years of business, honesty and being upfront about the negative aspects of anything goes a long way and earns you trust with the people you’re doing business with. I have nothing to hide …”

Loomis said he knows of only about 10 users who have seen their accounts disconnected for using the service. The company concedes that it has moved away from its initial premise — that it was distributing messages being sent from overseas users.

“The Bazuc free international SMS app is no longer functioning,” Loomis said. “The original idea of that app was like an SMS exchange system, but it never really took off that well, and the coder didn’t do such a great job anyway, so we let it fail and concentrated on the Earn Money app.”

Instead, Loomis confirms that he is primarily distributing bulk messages for various business customers, in turn offering them a lower per-message rate than they would ordinarily have to pay. Most of the messages, Bazuc said, are for password resets, verification codes or other alerts.

“That’s about 90 percent of our business and yes these messages are coming from very large corporations and are all legit,” Loomis said. Bazuc said that occasionally an ad campaign will slip through, but added that the company puts a stop to it whenever it spots such activity.

“We want 100 percent of our business to be verification codes and alerts,” Loomis said. “Advertising campaigns, spam or any phishing etc … will ultimately hurt my business and possibly ruin it completely, so we’re doing everything we can to make sure that type of traffic does not go through our network.”

Loomis acknowledged that the app has been pulled twice from the Google Play app store for violating a clause that requires that users approve each text message sent on their behalf.

“Clearly our app users will not want to click approve 3000 times daily and at the end of the day, we don’t need Google Play to get the app out there,” Bazuc said in the email.

Also at issue is the way that the company is currently distributing its app. After a visitor is on the site for 20 seconds, the Android app starts downloading automatically.

“I didn’t think this would be a big deal, since there’s no malware, viruses or advertisements of any kind,” Loomis said. “In addition to that, after download a user would need to install the app, read the warnings, complete registration and click the start button before any SMS would actually be sent.”

Lookout also posted details, including Better Business Bureau complaints, on past businesses run by Loomis.

Loomis acknowledged issues with his past businesses, a now-defunct debt-consolidation service and a social network that he agrees was an “epic fail.”

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131220/bulk-sms-app-maker-bazuc-responds-to-lookouts-claims-says-consumers-should-pay-attention-to-risks/feed/0Lookout Warns App That Pays for Unused Text Messages Is a Big-Time Security Threathttp://allthingsd.com/20131219/lookout-warns-app-that-pays-for-unused-text-messages-is-a-big-time-security-threat/
http://allthingsd.com/20131219/lookout-warns-app-that-pays-for-unused-text-messages-is-a-big-time-security-threat/#commentsThu, 19 Dec 2013 22:46:53 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380143Mobile security vendor Lookout is warning customers that an app that pays users to send text messages on their behalf is dangerous and should be avoided.

The app, called Bazuc, proposes that users allow them to send text messages from their plan. In exchange, it offers to pay users a tenth of a penny for each message sent.

But, contrary to the claims made on the site, Lookout said its testing showed Bazuc is sending mostly bulk messages rather than text messages from international users abroad.

“It’s very clearly only being used for bulk mailing,” Lookout principal security researcher Marc Rogers told AllThingsD. “In our entire testing we only saw three messages that came from a human.”

Rogers said the company also tried to send messages using a companion free international texting app but said it did not appear those messages were being sent.

A Bazuc representative did not immediately return a request for comment.

Rogers said the risk to those who use the app is enormous, ranging from getting angry phone calls from unhappy recipients, to seeing their phone lines canceled to perhaps facing legal liability if illegal messages are sent from their account.

“It’s the user that is going to be left holding the bag,” Rogers said. In addition, he noted, the website posts testimonials suggesting users can earn tens of dollars per month, when he said the figure is likely to be only a few dollars — and even at that level a carrier is likely to notice the excess usage and take action.

Rogers also said it is his belief that those sending the messages are being misled as to how their messages are being delivered. During testing, Rogers said, the company found large businesses — even some banks — using Bazuc to send texts to customers.

For its part, Lookout said it plans to warn those of its customers that have Bazuc installed as well as notify carriers and those who are using the other end of the service.

Lookout said it believes between 10,000 and 50,000 people downloaded it from the Google Play store alone.

The app, which had been in app stores including Google Play, has since been pulled, though Bazuc still has the Apple App Store and Google Play logos on its site. In fine print, the site notes the Apple version not yet available even though it uses the “available on the App Store” logo.

Bazuc still offers the app via its website (and as of Thursday afternoon, the company was actively trying to force it down to the computers of at least some of those visiting the site).

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131219/lookout-warns-app-that-pays-for-unused-text-messages-is-a-big-time-security-threat/feed/0T-Mobile Taps Former Avon, Barnes & Noble Exec as New CIOhttp://allthingsd.com/20131219/t-mobile-taps-former-avon-barnes-noble-exec-as-new-cio/
http://allthingsd.com/20131219/t-mobile-taps-former-avon-barnes-noble-exec-as-new-cio/#commentsThu, 19 Dec 2013 18:33:28 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=380042T-Mobile US has hired Gary King to serve as its chief information officer, effective at the end of the year. King, who has worked at Avon and Barnes & Noble, has spent the past nine years at retailer Chico’s FAS, where he was also CIO.
]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131219/t-mobile-taps-former-avon-barnes-noble-exec-as-new-cio/feed/0Maybe BlackBerry Should Focus on Low-End Phones, Become the Hyundai of Mobilehttp://allthingsd.com/20131219/maybe-blackberry-should-focus-on-low-end-phones-become-the-hyundai-of-mobile/
http://allthingsd.com/20131219/maybe-blackberry-should-focus-on-low-end-phones-become-the-hyundai-of-mobile/#commentsThu, 19 Dec 2013 18:10:29 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379973As John Chen weighs what to do now that he has taken the helm at BlackBerry, one longtime analyst has weighed in with his recommendations.

Wedge Partners principal Brian Blair suggests that the company can defy expectations that it will simply go out of business by rapidly scaling back its handset ambitions and focusing on low-end devices such as the Q5 released earlier this year.

“Be Hyundai,” Blair suggests. “There is room for you to exist in the mobile arena the same way that there are numerous tiers in the auto market.”

He notes that Hyundai isn’t Mercedes or BMW, but it is the fifth-largest auto maker, selling seven million cars a year.

On the app front, Blair says BlackBerry can’t possibly compete with the breadth of programs available for iOS and Android, but can work to make sure it has the top apps — even if it has to pay for them.

Here’s the complete open letter that Blair released earlier today, and it’s well worth a read, even for those who aren’t John Chen.

An Open Letter to Management

Dear Blackberry Management Team,
As you prepare to report another weak quarter of declining metrics and significant cash burn, I wanted to provide some thoughts on the one opportunity path I believe you still have. Wall Street believes you’re dead, Bloomberg Businessweek recently called you ‘a relic’ on their front page and I have taken plenty of shots at you myself over the last year. Investors, it seems, are largely counting the days until you fold. If you stay on the path you’ve been on, Blackberry will end with all of the various parts of the company getting chopped up and sold to the highest bidder. However, I think you have a way of avoiding that.

To start with, the good news in all of this is no one has any expectations for you. The bad news is: to survive you are going to have to admit defeat in a few very public ways and be willing to move the company in a direction that is not as sexy as the high end of the smartphone (or tablet) market. But there is hope, if you’re willing to look downstream and focus purely on the emerging market. This isn’t about winning anymore, it’s about surviving. The cash injections are going to get harder to come by next year if you don’t have a solid plan and path to profitability.

There is only one way for you to survive as a smartphone company. You need to completely leave behind the high end of the market and attack the low end with vigor, touting your famous keyboard as a primary differentiator and offering consumers migrating from feature phones access to the most important services of the Internet. The fact is: many people still like keyboards, and no one has done them as well as Blackberry, but you are going to have to take the fight downstream. I estimate that globally, you should be able to sell 100+ million
units a year profitably if you move fast. Just look at what all the major mobile players are suggesting: the high end is slowing, the low end is where the growth is. Yes, the ASPs are low, margins are slim, and the competition is fierce, but it’s the only place you have a shot of selling units. Over time, you may be able to move upstream to the mid-tier if you can grow a dedicated user base, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The process for the Blackberry might look like this:

Admit defeat in the software department. You simply cannot compete with any of the three majors in tier one markets. Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) are well capitalized software companies with many of the best software minds in the world and you won’t be able to catch them because they are years ahead of you, and they aren’t standing still. Even if you matched the core functionality of their devices, you won’t attract developers or create enough apps to get high end consumers to pay attention. The low end offers a more level playing field and by the way, Apple isn’t even trying to play there, which is good news for you.

Stop making high end devices tomorrow. Once you admit defeat, you can agree that it’s best to start over. Shut down the production lines for everything but the lower end Blackberry units that are still selling. Don’t wait. No amount of clever or expensive marketing will change consumer behavior or general attitudes in North America and Europe toward Blackberry. Cut your losses now. The new Blackberry is about emerging markets.

Be Hyundai. There is room for you to exist in the mobile arena the same way that there are numerous tiers in the auto market. Hyundai/Kia know they aren’t Mercedes or BMW, but they make a solid, affordable product that addresses the needs and price points of an important market segment and as a result they are the world’s fifth largest automaker, selling over 7 million units a year. This is your model. Take a look at your legacy products and start there. Remember the Pearl? The Curve? You know how to make and market an affordable smartphone and still squeeze a respectable margin out of it. This is the goal.

BB10 into the low end. You need to focus on taking the BB10 software and pushing it into a few SKUs that you can sell at $99 – $199 retail (without subsidy), but that you can still pull a 25% gross margin from. Stay with me here. The Q5 is a step in the right direction. Start with this and make it a bit sleeker. The recent Porsche-designed Blackberry turned a lot of heads. Many loved it. Maybe your next device is something in between. Either way, it has to be sleek and futuristic but still have that keyboard. Speaking of keyboards, did you see what Ryan Seacrest is investing $1 million into? A keyboard that slides on an iPhone. The keyboard doesn’t have to die. BB10 in a $149 sleek Porsche-designed Q5-like device could be your 2014 breakthrough.

How to think about apps. The way you will sell units is by introducing a product in this vein in a variety of colors (including grey/black) that are affordable (and offer excellent and easy access to the top 25 applications around the world. Since you won’t have the million apps Apple has in its arsenal, your task is to simply offer the very best and most popular applications, and they have to work flawlessly. Pay what you have to get them developed if they aren’t already there (that’s what Microsoft does). Control what you allow in your app store so it’s all super high quality. Send the message to consumers that less is more. Make each third party app incredible (or don’t approve it) and make it feel like an exclusive club.

Look to carriers around the world where smartphone penetration remains low. This is where the jump ball is and where Blackberry can still survive. Think Latin America, India, Southeast Asia. Meet with each and every carrier and focus on the regions where you are getting support. If there are 1.7 billion handsets sold this year, roughly half of those are still feature phones. The move to a Blackberry device is an incredibly wonderful leap for a user coming from a feature phone. That user coming off his old Nokia (NOK) device wants to experience Facebook, Twitter, Line, Instagram, Pandora, Snapchat, Evernote, Angry Birds, eBay, Netflix, Skype, Youtube, etc. This is where you come in and where the keyboard can be a huge plus. All some people want is access to the most popular apps and the feel of tactile keys.

That’s your customer. (Be aware that Microsoft is starting an aggressive push here too, because it’s also a jump ball for them.)

Push BBM aggressively. Yes, you should have opened it up years ago, before WhatsApp came along, but you can’t undo the past so your best bet is to offer it up to iOS and Android and try to make it a standard messaging platform that is interoperable across all operating systems. BBM has been very strong in many emerging markets in recent years, don’t let go of that, even if users migrate to other operating systems.

Encourage apps targeted at developing markets. If the next wave of smartphones will be sold into developing markets, then you should court developers in those markets who are willing to write code to address local needs. How about an app for Southeast Asia that could help a farmer increase his chances of a better harvest? I don’t think it exists yet, but it will as penetration of smartphones increases. You should be helping get that app and others like it developed for your platform. This will be one of the next wave of apps developed, why shouldn’t they run on a sleek, affordable BB10 touchscreen/keyboard device?

Pushback. Some investors will suggest you don’t go downstream. They will say this is a losing battle. Some will say don’t chase lower margins and lower ASPs, but you are seeing that anyway and you aren’t even trying. The fact is, you have no choice but to move to where the growth is and where the playing field is more level and the chances for success are on your side. Remember there are plenty of examples of companies who survive and even thrive by getting this lower-end approach right. Your biggest challenge if you move in this direction will be doing it proudly and profitably.

Best of Luck,

Brian Blair

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131219/maybe-blackberry-should-focus-on-low-end-phones-become-the-hyundai-of-mobile/feed/0Cyanogen Raises Another $23 Million From Tencent and Andreessen Horowitz to Help Fund a More Open Androidhttp://allthingsd.com/20131219/cyanogen-raises-another-50-million-from-tencent-and-andreessen-horowitz-to-help-fund-a-more-open-android/
http://allthingsd.com/20131219/cyanogen-raises-another-50-million-from-tencent-and-andreessen-horowitz-to-help-fund-a-more-open-android/#commentsThu, 19 Dec 2013 17:15:40 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379967Cyanogen, which offers a more open version of the Android operating system, said Thursday that it had scored a further $23 million from Andreessen Horowitz, China’s Tencent and existing investors Benchmark and Redpoint.

The company said it will hire roughly 70 people, primarily in engineering and design, over the next six to eight months and open an office in Shenzen, China, to go along with existing locations in Seattle and Palo Alto. Andreessen Horowitz partner Peter Levine will join Cyanogen’s board.

Cyanogen “takes the best of what Android offers and adds innovative features to create a clean yet customizable user experience,” Levine said in a blog post, adding that it is “100% compatible with all Android applications, yet brings fabulous new capabilities to Android such as enhanced security, performance, device support, and personalization.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the size of the Series B funding; it is $23 million, bringing total funding to date to $30 million.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131219/cyanogen-raises-another-50-million-from-tencent-and-andreessen-horowitz-to-help-fund-a-more-open-android/feed/0Bill Gates Makes a Darn Good Secret Santahttp://allthingsd.com/20131219/bill-gates-makes-a-darn-good-secret-santa/
http://allthingsd.com/20131219/bill-gates-makes-a-darn-good-secret-santa/#commentsThu, 19 Dec 2013 13:15:23 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379854A Reddit user got quite the surprise when she received her gift as part of the site’s Secret Santa program.

The card was unassuming enough, reading “To Rachel, From Bill.”

But when she opened the gift, she realized it was from none other than Bill Gates.

So what did the billionaire give as a present? Enclosed with the card was a book and a stuffed cow. But the real present was a donation of an actual cow to Heifer International, an organization that helps to fund education and support small stakeholder farmers.

“My Secret Santa present to you is a cow,” Gates wrote in the hand-signed card. “Don’t worry, you will not have to build a barn,” he added, explaining that the cow would be given to a family in need to provide milk and income.

To prove he was legit, Gates enclosed a photo of himself with the card.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131219/bill-gates-makes-a-darn-good-secret-santa/feed/0BlackBerry's BBM Chat Software to Come Preloaded on Some LG Phoneshttp://allthingsd.com/20131218/blackberrys-bbm-chat-software-to-come-preloaded-on-some-lg-phones/
http://allthingsd.com/20131218/blackberrys-bbm-chat-software-to-come-preloaded-on-some-lg-phones/#commentsWed, 18 Dec 2013 17:10:18 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379648Struggling phone maker BlackBerry said on Wednesday that its BBM instant messaging software will soon come preloaded on a phone from Korea’s LG Electronics. BlackBerry, which recently made BBM freely available for iOS and Android, said that the software will also come preinstalled on the LG G Pro Lite phone in various markets around the world.
]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131218/blackberrys-bbm-chat-software-to-come-preloaded-on-some-lg-phones/feed/0Intel Looks to Sponsorship Deals With FC Barcelona, and Now 49ers, to Boost Brandhttp://allthingsd.com/20131218/intel-looks-to-sponsorship-deals-with-fc-barcelona-and-now-49ers-to-boost-brand/
http://allthingsd.com/20131218/intel-looks-to-sponsorship-deals-with-fc-barcelona-and-now-49ers-to-boost-brand/#commentsWed, 18 Dec 2013 16:30:55 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379430Intel spent billions of dollars to make itself a household name and a must-have component when purchasing a new PC.

But, in a world where consumers are buying lots of mobile devices — most of which have other companies’ chips inside — Intel is looking for new ways to energize its brand. One key piece of the strategy is the signing of a handful of new sponsorship deals.

Last week the company announced a sponsorship deal with Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona and, later on Wednesday, the company will announce it is joining the roster of sponsors for Levi’s Stadium, the new home of the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers.

The 49ers deal makes a lot of sense, Intel says, what with the new stadium being built just a semiconductor’s throw from the company’s Santa Clara headquarters.

“In my eyes it is a natural partnership,” said Courtnee Westendorf, a former Apple executive who now serves as director of Intel’s brand experience marketing group. “We are two of the most iconic brands in the Valley.”

Westendorf came to Intel in 2012 to help with Intel’s likely-to-be-jettisoned pay TV unit and quietly shifted a month ago to this new role heading partnerships for the chipmaker. Although Intel spends a fortune on advertising, the emphasis on sports deals is relatively new, though the company did sponsor a Formula One team some years back.

“It really shows a shift in how we want to reach consumers,” Westendorf said.

In addition to Intel and Sony, tech companies SAP and Brocade are also among the ten major sponsors of the stadium.

For its part, Intel will get its name on one of the main plazas surrounding the stadium and serve as a technology partner helping with servers, storage and that sort of thing. In the plaza, the company plans an experience center to show off not only products with its chips, but also concept products from Intel Labs.

Westendorf said she is trying to find ways to make the sponsorships more than just about splashing the Intel name everywhere. With FC Barcelona, for example, the Intel brand is only on the inside of the players jerseys. When they pull up their shirts after a goal, the Intel Inside logo is revealed.

No word on whether the 49ers will have to play their home games in one of Intel’s well-known bunny suits.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131218/intel-looks-to-sponsorship-deals-with-fc-barcelona-and-now-49ers-to-boost-brand/feed/0Dish Gets a Sprint Deal, Just Not the One It First Wantedhttp://allthingsd.com/20131217/dish-gets-a-sprint-deal-just-not-the-one-it-first-wanted/
http://allthingsd.com/20131217/dish-gets-a-sprint-deal-just-not-the-one-it-first-wanted/#commentsTue, 17 Dec 2013 21:49:21 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379354Months after failing in its effort to buy Sprint, Dish Networks announced a deal on Tuesday in which the two companies will partner to sell home broadband service using fixed wireless technology.

Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen

Initially the service will be offered in just one area — Corpus Christi, Texas — though there is a plan to expand to other areas if the trial goes well. Dish will install the service, using either a ruggedized outdoor router or an indoor one, with the service picking up a signal sent over the 2.5Ghz spectrum Sprint acquired from Clearwire. (Dish had also tried unsuccessfully to buy Clearwire.)

“With millions underserved by inadequate broadband, the potential to bring a high-speed fixed wireless solution is very compelling to both Dish and Sprint,” Dish Executive VP Tom Cullen said in a statement.

Sprint also seemed ready to let bygones be bygones. “This trial with Dish has great potential as it combines the key capabilities and assets of both companies to provide another option to customers with limited broadband access,” Sprint Senior VP Michael Schwartz said in a statement.

Though Dish lost out to SoftBank in the bidding war for Sprint, the deal shows the relatively few options companies often have in this area. The potential for greater combined efforts in the future would seem to still be there as Dish has lots of spectrum and will likely need a partner to help it take advantage of all of those airwaves.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131217/dish-gets-a-sprint-deal-just-not-the-one-it-first-wanted/feed/0Gates Foundation Picks UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann as Next CEOhttp://allthingsd.com/20131217/gates-foundation-picks-ucsf-chancellor-susan-desmond-heilman-as-next-ceo/
http://allthingsd.com/20131217/gates-foundation-picks-ucsf-chancellor-susan-desmond-heilman-as-next-ceo/#commentsTue, 17 Dec 2013 15:32:24 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379234Bill Gates has completed his search for a new CEO to lead the endeavor he started.

“Sue’s background in public health policy, research and development, and higher education, make her an exceptional fit for this role,” Bill Gates said in a statement. “She impressed us as an innovator and an outstanding leader and manager.”

An oncologist by training, Desmond-Hellmann has been UCSF’s head since August 2009 and was the first woman to serve as the school’s chancellor.

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131217/gates-foundation-picks-ucsf-chancellor-susan-desmond-heilman-as-next-ceo/feed/0Barcelona Is Samsung's Next Destination in Global Quest for Developershttp://allthingsd.com/20131217/barcelona-is-samsungs-next-destination-in-global-quest-for-developers/
http://allthingsd.com/20131217/barcelona-is-samsungs-next-destination-in-global-quest-for-developers/#commentsTue, 17 Dec 2013 14:00:00 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=379169Following on the San Francisco developer conference held in October, Samsung plans to hold another event for app creators, in conjunction with next year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Korean electronics giant plans a Samsung Developer Day on Feb. 26, and is inviting developers to apply to participate.

“Be a part of the Samsung Developer Day to learn about the Samsung’s latest tools, SDKs and technologies for Samsung devices and services,” Samsung said on its developer website. The company promises to share its latest developer tools at the event. “In addition, we are excited to share with you what we’ve been working on and we are also eager to listen to you so that we can discover new ways for us to collaborate and go forward.”

Sony said Monday that it is changing its U.S. leadership, shifting current head Phil Molyneux to non-executive chairman, while naming Michael Fasulo as its new president.

Fasulo, currently executive VP and head of sales for the U.S., will assume the new post Jan. 1, and Sony executive Toshifumi Okuda will come over from Japan and serve as deputy president.

“Phil Molyneux, who has ably served Sony for more than a quarter century, came to SEL in 2010 with a specific mission: to transform the business in the face of daunting, industry-wide challenges, reducing costs and streamlining operations,” Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said in a statement. “He accomplished those goals and laid a firm foundation for future growth. All of us at Sony are grateful for his dedicated service and passionate commitment to the employees he led for the past three-plus years.”

Phil Molyneux

Molyneux spoke to reporters last week about Sony’s continued effort to re-establish itself as a premium brand in the U.S., saying it hopes to use the transition to Ultra HD, or 4K, as a catalyst.

Fasulo, who joined Sony in 1984 as a financial analyst, has worked in a variety of roles in his nearly 30 years at the company.

“I am both humbled and honored to take on this critical role, and I have strong resolve to lead Sony in the U.S. to success,” said Fasulo. “I am equally inspired by Hirai-san’s confidence in me, and am very excited to be leading the folks I’ve worked with at Sony Electronics for many years. I look forward to Okuda-san’s arrival and working as one team to rejuvenate this brand I love.”

“There is no doubt that U.S. is one of the most important markets for Sony,” said Okuda. “I am very much excited to work and align with Mike and all SEL employees to make Sony regain the leadership position in this important market.”

]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131216/sony-shakes-up-u-s-leadership-taps-michael-fasulo-in-continued-turnaround-effort/feed/0Intel Buys Wireless Infrastructure Business of Mindspeed Technologieshttp://allthingsd.com/20131216/intel-buys-wireless-infrastructure-business-of-mindspeed-technologies/
http://allthingsd.com/20131216/intel-buys-wireless-infrastructure-business-of-mindspeed-technologies/#commentsMon, 16 Dec 2013 18:29:09 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=378984Intel said on Monday that it is buying the wireless infrastructure unit of Mindspeed Technologies as part of its effort to use Intel chips inside all manner of wireless infrastructure. “Intel-based platforms today deliver three of four key processing workloads: application processing, control processing and packet processing,” Intel said in a blog post, adding that the Mindspeed deal will help with that last area — signal processing.
]]>http://allthingsd.com/20131216/intel-buys-wireless-infrastructure-business-of-mindspeed-technologies/feed/0Ex-HTC Exec Launches Zero, a Startup Aiming to Keep That Fitbit or FuelBand From Ending Up in a Drawerhttp://allthingsd.com/20131216/former-htc-exec-launches-zero-a-start-up-building-services-to-make-fitness-bands-more-social/
http://allthingsd.com/20131216/former-htc-exec-launches-zero-a-start-up-building-services-to-make-fitness-bands-more-social/#commentsMon, 16 Dec 2013 15:00:26 +0000http://allthingsd.com/?p=378859Fitness bands like the Jawbone Up, Nike FuelBand and various models from Fitbit, are selling pretty well. The challenge, though, is that many people use them for a month or two, before tossing them next to the Ab Roller and Shake Weights.

Former HTC executive Kouji Kodera thinks there is a way to make those fitness bands more useful, by making them more social. People who go to the gym with friends, he said, tend to stick with their regimens better than those exercising solo.

“That’s the same thing we’d like to do in this wearable space,” said Kodera, who has created Zero, a Seattle-based startup aimed at creating services for exercise bands and, later, other devices.

“If you go with a Fitbit, you are living in a Fitbit world,” Kodera said in an interview. “Same with Jawbone.”

In addition, such devices offer limited data, and are actually not that social beyond letting people brag on Facebook or Twitter.

All that has led to a severe problem when it comes to long-term use of the devices. Kodera said he has seen data suggesting that more than three quarters of users stop using their devices after around two months.

“None of these devices are driving long-term usage from consumers,” he said. The right services, he said, might be able to change that.

Kodera is not alone in that observation — many throughout the industry are predicting that better services are needed to make the fitness wearables market really show some muscle.

Zero hopes to launch its service in the first quarter of next year, offering up its own “energy index” that shows a sense of how one is doing mentally, physically and socially.

Kodera said it is too soon to share all the details, but said the first release will likely be limited to the major fitness bands. However, he said, the inclusion of chips like the iPhone’s M7 paves the way for smartphone owners to eventually take part, as well.

The company, Kodera said, is also still weighing what the right business model is to support the 10-person company in the longer term.